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𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑬𝑻𝑬𝑬𝑵
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Three months. That's how long it had been since Willow Hargreaves had seen her mum for the very last time. Donna had been bleeding internally and when in surgery, she continued to decline. The doctors were unable to find the bleed in time and so she passed away on the operating table.
The news was difficult for both Willow and Vincent to take. They had lost a member of their family and the grief had hit them like a truck. It was tough for both of them since Donna was the glue of the family. She had always made sure that both Willow and Vincent were eating properly, making sure that they remembered important dates but now, they would have to do that themselves.
Ben had been round to the Hargreaves' residence almost every day for the past three months. He had wanted to make sure that Willow was coping okay and he wanted to help her but in the process, he had grown closer to Vincent. The two of them ended up having their first proper conversation after Willow had fallen asleep on the couch one night and Vincent returned home late from work. Vincent was warming up to the idea of Ben, especially after their first conversation which was about how similar Willow was to her mother. Vincent hated to admit it but he felt like he could really relate to Ben in some ways.
Ben had also been at the house every Friday evening to cook the grieving family a freshly prepared home-cooked meal. He knew that with the grief, the pair had been ordering themselves takeaways almost every other day of the week. It wasn't healthy and it's certainly not what Donna would have wanted for the two of them so he decided to take matters into his own hands. Both Willow and Vincent appreciated the kind gesture. It made everything just that little bit easier for them both.
Currently, Ben was at Willow's shared house with her father after he had attended training. The two were out in the back garden, having what was supposed to be a deep conversation but they weren't.
"Ben, stop!" Willow giggled out as the two started swinging back and forth on the hammock that Vincent had put up in the garden for his daughter when she was studying for her exams. She needed a quiet place to read her textbooks and when the British weather permitted, the hammock was the perfect place for her to do that.
"Nope," Ben laughed as he continued to swing the hammock and make the couple continue feeling like they were about to fall out of it.
"I like hearing you laugh and it's the first time I've heard it in a while." Ben looked towards his girlfriend and gave her a soft smile. He knew the subject of her mum was still a touchy one but he could see that his girlfriend was slowly getting back to some sense of normality. He knew that Willow would never be able to 'get over' the loss of her mum, it just wasn't possible but he knew that every day that went by, the pain became more bearable. Ben knew it would be hard but he was glad to see her start to heal.
"You know, I've been thinking," Ben started which immediately caught Willow's attention. She whipped her head around to look at him, wondering what it was that he had to say to her.
"Your mum wanted us to get married, why don't we do it?" Ben asked and Willow could only look at him with a blank expression.
The past few months had been an absolute whirlwind for the couple. They had thought that Willow was going to be married off to a successful businessman. They had so much pressure piled upon their shoulders and they had been enjoying the time that they had together, even if it was spent grieving Willow's loss. Ever since Brandon and Tommy's wedding, the couple hadn't even discussed marriage and Ben was hoping that it was something that Willow still wanted and if she did still wanted it, he hoped that she still wanted it with him.
"Is this your way of proposing to me?" The brunette girl questioned with the faintest of smiles on her lips. Truth be told, Willow had been waiting for this moment ever since her mother had given Ben the permission to propose in the hospital. She could understand him wanting to wait as they had never really been a 'perfect' moment but she could only hope that this was the moment.
"Well, since you asked," Ben slipped himself off the hammock and got down on one knee, pulling out a navy, velvet box from his trouser pocket. Neither one of them could contain the smiles that graced their faces. They had to wait so long for this moment and now, it was finally here.
"Willow Hargreaves, will you do me the honour of finally becoming my wife?" He opened up the box to reveal an understated yet still beautiful double-banded, silver ring with a small diamond in the middle.
"Benjamin James Chilwell, I would be honoured." Willow giggled to herself, feeling her eyes well up. Ben slipped the ring onto her slender finger and smiled, pleased with himself for being one step closer to having Willow as his wife.
The couple embraced in a hug and from the kitchen window, Vincent Hargreaves smiled. He was finally happy. Ben might not have been the man that he would have picked out for his daughter but she was the happiest that he had ever seen her and that was all he needed in life. He looked down at the framed picture of his wife that he held in his hands and smiled sadly. He knew just how much Donna would have loved to see their daughter get engaged to the man of her dreams. She would have been proud of him for accepting ben into the family and learning to get over his past grudges.
The Hargreaves family had a long road ahead of them but they could do it all together, Ben included.
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a/n: so this is yesterday's update! I never got round to editing it yesterday in preparation for an evening update and then when the time came, I had a headache (I haven't had one in months and I used to have them practically every day for almost a year a few years back) so I decided to have an early night and low and behold, it went away! I'm telling you, sleep is one of the best things for headaches.
The final chapter is up next, who's ready?
I can't lie, I have no idea what's in the next chapter. I wrote it in June or July I think and I can't for the life of me remember what I put in it so it will be a surprise for all of us!
